Today, school had gotten out early and a large group of children had gathered for a game of paintball just outside the city's boundaries. Among the group was Jayde, a very shy young girl who clinged to her light blue paintball gun like it was her very life. It would seem odd that she was tagging along with this rag tag group of boys, but then again Jayde was a very odd girl herself.

The group broke into two separate parties and ran off in opposite directions.

One group was running a bit faster than the other. The boy at the head of the group was leading them at a rapid pace. They finally came to a halt at the edge of a frozen river. There the boy looked over his team. They seemed tired already.

"We have to cross this river." He demanded.

The group shifted uneasily at the thought of this. None of them knew if the ice would be strong enough to hold them or not.

"Good thinking' Zeke!" Another boy called out from the back of the group. "Here, lets make her go first, she's the smallest."

Zeke scrunched his nose up as he struggled to see who the boy was talking about. Unable to, he shoved two kids out of his way and trudged to the back of the group, where he found the boy holding Jayde by her pony tail.

"No," Zeke spoke, poking the boy's gut with the barrel of his paintball gun. "I have a better idea, Jake"

With that the boy released his grip on Jayde, who stepped back and returned to her habit of cradling her paintball gun.

"What are you talking about, Zeke?" Jake replied, a worried look spread on his plump red face. Zeke and Jake were both the meanest kids in the group. This had brought them together as friends, but being the rude boy Zeke was, he was well known to break promises.

"Hey everyone we are going to cross the rive one by one Jayde you go first and Jake you go right before me and im going last if anyone of you falls in i will come rescue you and Jake it will probably be you ok everyone so lets start moving. The other team is probably getting ready and looking for us by now." All the kids groaned and said ok and they started off with the smallest Jayde to the biggest Jake but Zeke was the last to cross to make sure that everyone had gotten over ok. Well on Zeke's way over he got to the middle and the ice started cracking so he took a few big steps and dove and landed in front of the group of kids and he got up and brushed himself off and said. " Come on lets go we dont have much time before the other team finds us split up into pair and find good hiding spots. For me i will take Jayde as my partner ok now everyone pick a partner and spread out and hide." Zeke and Jayde had gotten to their spot and got ready for the enemy to come after them. Zeke started talking to Jayde. " Hey sorry about that guy Jake earlier he is just a fat bully and he is always trying to act big and mean like me and it gets kind of annoying sometimes but if he or anyone else gives you problems you let me know and i will give them some problems of there own ok."

The other team was advancing on their position and they stopped at the river and saw that it was cracked and guessed that the other team had crossed it and then they just started running back to the forest because Zeke and Jayde were picking them off like flies. Once Zeke had seen then fleeing back to the woods he gave the signal for everyone to open fire on the other team. Zeke watched as everyone on the other team dropped to their knees and put down their guns because they got shot and now they was out and there was only one person left and it was the leader of their team and Zeke and Jayde saw him and Zeke said to Jayde.

"Hey Jayde why don't we give this guy a double pain and both shoot him" and Jayed replied back to Zeke and said. " Ok i like the sound of that idea double the pain to win the game."

With that said Zeke and Jayde shot one paintball each and Zeke's paintball struck the kid in the mask and Jayde's paintball struck him in the chest. After the last kid dropped his gun and got on his knees everyone from Zeke and Jayde's team came out of the woods and started cheering and Zeke got up and patted Jayde on the pack and he said to her as she was getting up.

"Good Job i think we will have to be partners more often." As Zeke and Jayde got up and walked out of the forest Zeke saw a car and with his great eye site he saw that there was two people in it. He noticed that one was a women and the other was a man. Zeke noticed the same car before he had entered the forest. They must have been watching him and maybe Jayde. Zeke also noticed that the women in the car was getting out and she had started walking towards Zeke and Jayde. Once the lady had caught up to them she said.

"Hi I am doctor Halsey you two are pretty good at what you just did. What was it that you just did." she asked and Zeke responded. " Well I am Zeke ans this here is my friend Jayde and what we were just doing was what we call paintballing it is where you have a gun and Co2 and you shoot little balls with paint in them at the people on the other team and who ever is the last one left that persons team wins the match." "Well it was nice meeting you and your friend and thank you for the description of your game. I have a feeling we will be seeing each other pretty soon." Dr. Halsey said before she walked back to her car and got in it with the man she was with. Before she left she took one last look at Spartan 007 Zeke and spartan 115 Jayde and noticed that they had so much fun with their friends and what they did she felt sorry that she had to take them away from that.

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The next day Zeke and Jayde awoke next to each other to a harsh good morning. a voice came blearing into the room they had sleep in. "Come on trainees get up out of those cots and on your feet on the double and if you don't get up we will make you get up." All the kids got up with groaning noises and sleepy yawns and Zeke asked " excuse me sir but where are we and why are we not at home." a voice came yelling at him and then to the other trainees " the reason why you trainees are here is because your the best we could find and and now we are going to train you to be the best soldier's ever. Now here put these clothes on and meet me outside" and the officer walked out of the room and and trainers came in after he left and handed each of the kids a uniform Zeke had gotten some clothes and on the shirt it have the numbers 024 stitched into them and he turned to ask Jayde what number she had gotten.

"Hey Jayde what number did you get? Do you think this is going to be fun or hard" she replied " I got number 115 and hopefully it will be fun" before all the trainers left one of them said "these numbers that are on your clothes are what your names are now you will be called by your numbers and not your names goodbye." Zeke and Jayde were the first to leave the bunks and the first to get to the trail where Mendez was and then all the other kids come out with their sweats on.

"Alright trainees we are going to go for a jog and then do a little exercise and then you are going to go to class for a while." Ok so lets start jogging its only a short jog.

( and at the end where i left it open is where zeke and ron can meet and we can continue on from there.)